As a part of their fantastic Repertory program, the Cinematheque this month is showing the 1973 Italian surrealistic masterpiece Amarcord, directed by that nation’s greatest ambassador of cinema, Federico Fellini.

The title translated means ‘I remember’ but how many of the events are factual and how many are an exaggeration from Fellini’s more than fertile imagination is difficult to tell.

Not that it matters in the least.

Attempting to describe the plot would be an exercise in futility as Fellini had by this point in his career nearly abandoned the notion of traditional narrative.

The film runs episodically through a year in a pre-Second World War village and centers on Titta Biondi (Bruno Zanin), a teenage stand-in for Fellini. But the average coming-of-age story this is not; it would be difficult to find another film with such a perfect mix of the poignant and the grotesque (you’ll never see another first sexual experience like Titta’s run in with the cigarette lady).

In fact, this film really has it all: The wild family dinners with an explosive patriarch, the schoolroom pranks, the troubling rise of Fascism, the hot Mediterranean nights, the insatiable Italian libido and the women that spur it on.

Fellini filters these adolescent indulgences through his inimitable lens and the result is a fantastical film so brimming with life and vitality that it makes one long to book passage on the first steamer across the Atlantic in order to get just a small taste of the old world charm dancing off the screen.

Published in Volume 63, Number 30 of The Uniter (August 13, 2009)